Game Review: Awesomenauts
Release: May 1, 2012
Genre: Real-Time Strategy
Developer: Ronimo
Available Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Players: 1-6
MSRP: 800 MS Points, $9.99
ESRB Rating: T
Website: http://www.awesomenauts.com/

The Awesomenauts are interstellar warriors in conflict! With six heroes, they must face off and destroy their opposite-colored duplicates while mining for Solara, the currency of the 36th century. With Solara, they can upgrade their abilities, and save the day. This massive online battle game brings modern team combat to traditional 2D planes; does it succeed in this goal?

Awesomenauts is, at its essence, Team Fortress 2 by way of Worms Armageddon. Decidedly multiplayer, the game is a 2D sidescroller in visuals, but a multiplayer capture the flag-style game. Presented akin to a ’80s cartoon (complete with theme song and humanoid animal aliens), it looks like a traditional old-school battle game, like Worms. Players have to destroy bits of the opponents base, and a certain segment, once destroyed, will signal the end of the game.

A variety of characters are available, each effectively reflecting a class of player. Some are better at range, some are great at close combat. They all have a variety of skills, each upgradable during the match. Sure, you’ll run into your counter-color opponent on the other side, but each character has their own personality.

The game definitely gets the vibe of old school US cartoons down, as the concept of the Awesomenauts seems to fit in perfectly with such titles as Bucky O’Hare and Cowboys of Moo Mesa. It’s a defined visual style capped off with an intro song that encapsulates the era. Beyond the visual presentation, the characters all play appropriately differently, and every player will find someone they take preference to. Given the unlockable scheme of the game, not all characters will be unlocked at the beginning, forcing you to take a try at the variety of characters before sticking to one only revealed later in the game.

Part of the bad from the game stems from its concept: it’s multiplayer at its heart, and there’s very little for the single-player to do. While the game is great at getting multiplayer action set up, it’s all there is at the heart. A single-player adventure would be a great addition to the title. Additionally, while the concept of purchasing items in the middle of a match is fun, it somewhat makes players juggle unnaturally; do I teleport back to base now that I have enough Solara to buy a better gun, or do I stick it out at the moment? In many cases, you’ll just wait to die to end up near the vending machine to upgrade, but it’s definitely an action that takes you out of the action for a bit.

Awesomenauts is a definitely fun game with a nice bit of variety in the game landscape: a sprite-based team action title will definitely stand out. While it has its faults, if you’re looking for a such a game, you’d be hard pressed to find better than this.

• Good combination of old and new elements
• Can’t permanently save ability upgrades
• Good amount of unlockables encourage replayability

Final Score
8 out of 10

The final votes have been tallied, and you all have spoken.  After 3 grueling rounds that saw impressive titles fall by the wayside, we have a champion to crown in the 2012 Fall Game Release Showdown.  Anyone that was following the voting might have seen this coming, because it wasn’t close at any point, but here you go:

The winner of the 2012 Fall Game Release Showdown is: Assassin’s Creed 3

Assassin’s Creed 3 beat out Halo 4, taking an impressive 82.1% of the vote (the most lopsided victory of any of the matchups).  Whoever said “never bring a knife to a gunfight” was clearly a Templar. Thank you to everyone who took the time to vote through the last 3 weeks, and feel free to flip back to the previous weeks to see how all the other votes shook out.

As I mentioned last week, this Showdown was the last ASQ for Platform Nation.  Sad to put an end to such a fun weekly, but that’s the way of life.  On a more personal note, today is also the last day for me as a writer and editor for Platform Nation.  With my second kid on the way, and an increasingly diminishing free-time pool, I needed to make a cut somewhere.  I won’t draw out the goodbyes, but I want to thank everyone behind the scenes at Platform Nation for being such a supportive gaming family. In particular, thanks to Scott diMonda and Steve Artlip, who put up with me, took me under their wing, gave me a shot, and gave me a voice for over 2 years to talk about the stuff I love.  I would like to think I made the most out of what I was given, and I hope I provided interesting opinions, quality reviews, and fun question for everyone to read and respond to. Which brings me to my most important thanks: thanks to you, the readers.  Without your comments, emails, tweets and votes, all of this is just words in cyberspace.  Thanks for engaging with me and keeping this fun.

I do have some results to give you from all of the outstanding polls, so read on for some interesting numbers on how everyone has voted over the last few months of ASQs.

Release Day Bugs [14 votes] (Should high profile games be delayed if there are known issues that would be left unresolved at launch?): 100% of you said Yes.

Skyrim [22 votes] (Do you plan on playing Skyrim straight through before going to another game?): 68.2% of you said Yes.

Xbox 360 Dashboard Update [25 votes] (What do you think of the proposed changes coming to your Xbox 360 Dashboard?): 72.0% of you said Love them!, 20% said Eh.. indifferent.., and 8% said Hate Them!

The Best Current Gen Console [24 votes] (If you had to do it again, knowing what you know now, what one console would you choose as your gaming platform of choice?): 50% said Xbox 360, 41.7% said PS3, and 8.3% said Wii.

The Next Next-Generation Console [169 votes] (Are you satisfied with the current generation of consoles (to the point that you’re not itching for the next generation just yet)?): 50.9% of you said No.

Holiday Console Sales [14 votes] (Which company will have the best sales numbers (units sold) for their consoles in December?): 57.1% said Microsoft, 28.6% said Nintendo, and 14.3% said Sony.

Entertainment Consoles [30 votes] (Do you prefer having your gaming console and media entertainment delivery separate?): 63.3% of you said Yes, I prefer them to be separate.

Physical Or Digital Game Copies [34 votes] (What do you think will be the method of delivery for games 10 years from now (physical copy vs. digital copy)?): 41.2% said All Digital, 29.4% said Mostly Digital, Some Physical, 20.6% said Mostly Physical, Some Digital, and 8.8% said Evenly Split.

Game Instruction Manuals [36 votes] (Do you care that games are moving their instruction manuals online?): 66.7% of you said Yes, I consider it part of the game experience.

Difficulty Settings [15 votes] (What difficulty setting do you usually play a game on for your first playthrough?): 73.3% said Normal, 20% said Hard, and 6.7% said Easy.

Staying Alive [12 votes] (If the developers of a game you were looking forward to buying had to cut features, would you rather have a more robust single player experience, or more multiplayer options?): 91.7% said Better Single Player.

Sequel Before Prequel [34 votes] (If previous games of a series that you haven’t had an interest in (until the latest version) are available on your current console, what do you play first?): 70.6% said The earliest game in the series – I don’t want to miss out on the backstory.

Mass Effect 3 – Creating Your Shephard

What is your Shepard’s pre-service history? [93 votes]: Spacer 44.1%, Earthborn 34.4%, Colonist 21.5%
What is your Shepard’s Psychological profile? [92 votes]: War Hero 60.9%, Sole Survivor 32.6%, Ruthless 6.5%
How has your Shepard handled loss? [94 votes]: Saved Ashley Williams, lost Kaidan Alenko 59.6%, Saved Kaidan Alenko, lost Ashley Williams 34%, Numerous: Many losses suffered that are impacting Shepard 6.4%
What class will your Shepard be? [93 votes]: Soldier 37.6%, Vanguard 28%, Infiltrator 11.8%, Adept 10.8%, Sentinel 7.5%, Engineer 4.3%

PlayStation Vita [20 votes] (Will you be buying a PlayStation Vita this year?): 60% said No.

Review Scores [9 votes] (If a publication does not explicitly state their review score policy, what do you assume a final review score means?): 44.4% said Quality of the game relative to all other games, 33.3% said A purchase indicator, and 22.2% said Quality of the game relative to other games in the genre.

 Multiplayer Invades Single Player [71 votes] (Should games use multiplayer progress to influence the single player experience?): 85.9% said No.

Psychonauts 2 [41 votes] (Did you ever play Psychonauts, and would you want to play a sequel?): 80.5% said Yes, I played Psychonauts, and yes I would want to play a sequel., 12.2% said No, I never played Psychonauts, and have no interest in a sequel., 7.3% said No, I never played Psychonauts, but yes I would want to play a sequel., and 0% said Yes, I played Psychonauts, but no, I wouldn’t want to play a sequel.

Hamonix’s New Game [23 votes] (What do you think the new Harmonix game is going to be?): 52.2% said A new Rock Band offering, 30.4% said Something else completely, 8.7% said A new Dance Central offering, and 8.7% said A new mobile/tablet (app) offering.

PAX East 2012 [8 votes] (What are (or would be) your 2 favorite things about PAX?): 87.5% picked The expo floor – playing new or not yet released games, 37.5% said both The atmosphere and The swag!!, and 12.5% said both The panels and The freeplay areas (console, tabletop, etc).

Rock Band Blitz [20 votes] (Will you be buying Rock Band Blitz?): 75% of you said Yes.

Portable Gaming [17 votes] (What mobile device are you giving most of your portable gaming time to?): 47.1% said Phone (iPhone, Android, WP7, etc), 35.3% said Dedicated Game System (3DS, Vita, etc), 17.6% said Other portable device (iPod Touch, etc), and 0% said Tablet.

And that wraps it up for Platform Nation’s ASQ.  Thanks again for everyone’s participation over the years! Of course, you know I can’t end it without at least one or two questions for you to comment on, so…. what was your favorite ASQ that you answered?  What question would you have liked to ask everyone? Drop a comment below – I’ll be reading them.

Farewell, everyone.

View previous ASQ: Fall 2012 Game Release Showdown – Finals

Game Review:

Toy Soldiers: Cold War was launched onto XBLA and PSN in August 2011 and quickly garnered both critical acclaim and praise from gamers. TS:CW took the formula from the original WWII themed Toy Soldiers and updated it by infusing the presentation, mechanics, and scenarios with an 80′s flare that gave  the game some much needed levity and personality. With the new Napalm and Evil Empire DLC packs, Signal Studios looks to give fans of the game some new scenarios to play through and enjoy. Each pack comes with three brand new maps that play and look a lot different than any of the original maps that were released with Toy Soldiers: Cold War.

The first DLC Pack that I played through was the Evil Empire one which focused on the Soviet Union and it’s campaign to rid the world of the capitalist pig threat. Rather than slowly coax you into the game play, Evil Empire starts the player off with a full-on invasion that will force you to quickly dispose of the initial wave before setting up your defenses. To help you along with your ruskie campaign you’re given a full arsenal of emplacements and a couple new vehicles to use as you eliminate the Yankee threat from Mother Russia. Over the three maps you’ll be faced with a mixture of troops that will constantly have you selling off useless turrets to change up your strategy to better defend against the enemy. The trio of maps ends with a heated battle against droves of increasingly difficult American troops that culminates with an all out battle against a huge tank that utilizes advanced weapons and spits out infantry and armored units along the way.

Next up we have the Napalm map that focuses on backdrop of the Vietnam War and utilizes the guerilla tactics and weaponry that were used during that time. Just like with the Evil Empire maps the Napalm map does not pull any punches and will have you immediately thrown into the fray as soon as you begin the first map. Of the two, I found Napalm to be the more difficult as it has the play multi-tasking between multiple targets and even has you at one point defending a triple entrance base that will have you juggling your defenses  throughout the relentless attack by Vietnamese troops. Throughout this campaign I found myself utilizing the vehicles more often than not as the onslaught of enemies proved to be more than my defenses could handle. The maps ended with what seemed like an easy to defend choke point that quickly turned into an all out battle to defend against heavily armored tanks outfitted with high-powered lasers and an eventual standoff against a flying death machine.

All six of the maps had me restarting on more than one occasion but rather than being overly frustrated I took this as a challenge to better tune my defenses to the waves of enemies rather than utilizing my default “catch all” set-ups. I really enjoyed the challenge that these maps provided and I commend Signal Studios for choosing to put a lil effort into providing new scenarios rather than just maps to extend the experience.  Both DLC packs provide experiences that expand on the tight gameplay found in Toy Soldiers: Cold War as well as provide some new backdrops to enjoy as you fend over the evil horde of enemies.

There’s very little that I would change about the Napalm experience, other than perhaps more maps to enjoy. Without a doubt I had a lot of fun getting through the waves of enemies as I made my way through the maps. As for the Evil Empire maps, I’d have to say that I found them to be lacking in originality and that they offered very little to the formula found in the original game. While I enjoyed playing through Evil Empire, I’d say that Napalm was the real must-have of the two packs as it is a  unique experience that expands the universe created by the original game.

You’d have to be a big fan of the original Toy Soldiers: Cold War to purchase the Napalm and Evil Empire DLC Packs, but if you do, you’ll be treated to a suite of maps that are sure to challenge the skills you acquired while playing the main game. For five dollars a piece, you’ll get a group of maps that are sure to satisfy your devious penchant for toy-based destruction.

+Napalm DLC provides a variety of new challenges to overcome
+Sure to challenge veterans and new players a like
+Revels in the 80′s aesthetic through music and scenery
-Evil Empire feels like more of the same
-3 maps per pack leaves you wanting more

Final Scores: Napalm DLC – 8 Out Of 10

Evil Empire DLC – 7 Out Of 10

The Walking Dead, long before it became known as a TV series on AMC, was a comic book series by Robert Kirkman.  I mention this because the game is based on said comic book series, so those people who go into this game thinking they’re getting some sort of continuation of the TV series will be in for a shock, but fortunately no prior understanding of either the show or the comic is necessary to play the game.  This review will be spoiler free, because a game like this needs to be experienced by the player first, not read in some review.  The first episode in this 5 chapter season sets the stage wonderfully, as you take part in the early stages of the zombie infestation that has begun to plague Atlanta and the outlying suburbs.  You’ll meet up with all sorts of characters, all of whom have their own motives and methods of surviving (with various degrees of success).  Your goal through this episode is to establish what’s going on, find help, try to locate your family, and, of course, survive.

How you go about accomplishing those goals is what this game is all about.  Telltale Games has done an excellent job with how you interact with the world.  Rather than having just point and click environments, or just having you move the character around exploring, The Walking Dead mixes them both in.  At times, you’ll be free to explore an area (often a fairly limited space) using either the control pad or WASD keys, depending on your input method.  Other times, you may be crawling along the ground using those same controls, scrambling to get away from a zombie.  And there are instances where it is point and click: you can’t move at all, and must look around at what is nearby to determine what you must do next, such as escaping a vehicle, or distracting a zombie horde.  It’s the fusion of these different types of interfaces that help keep The Walking Dead from feeling repetitive while serving a specific purpose; for example, most point and click scenes are used in claustrophobic environments where you need to act quickly.

And acting quickly is a common theme in this game.  Almost from the start, you’re on a timer any time an interaction is required of you.  Everything from conversation responses to actions to chases are timed, and your reaction will dictate life or death, be it yours or someone else’s.  Conversations in particular require constant attention, as your input is often needed to steer things in one direction or another.  Silence (either no response, or selecting the “…” response) is an option, and sometimes can be the prudent move, but more often than not, you’ll want to say something.  Building relationships in this game is critical, and you will often need to decide between telling people the truth, and telling them what they want to hear.  You’ll have to remember all the stories you tell, too, because characters will either test you on what you previously said, or be listening when you tell your story to others, and if things don’t mesh up, you’ll damage your credibility.  This might not seem like a big deal, until you try to convince them to help you and they blow you off.  Every choice you make will change the story you experience, and in fairly drastic ways.  Telltale Games has stated that the episodes will build off of the choices you make (and this is made evident in the closing preview to the next chapter, in which cutscenes are tailored to the choices you made in the game), so choose wisely (but quickly!).

The Walking Dead does a great job of immersing you in its world quickly, and you learn about your character from the interactions you have with other characters (including the lies you tell). This character interaction is one of the real strengths of the game, and is driven by excellent dialog and voice acting.  The emotions that people feel are real, and with the cel-shaded cartoon style of graphical representation, solid dialog was critical in order to keep the game’s fairly serious tone plausible.  The game does not shy away from forcing tough decisions on your character with real ramifications, and you will quickly learn that slow response time or poor decision making will cost people their lives.  The game takes this all in stride and moves on, but you may find yourself dwelling on whether you could have handled a situation better.  Fortunately, there are 3 save slots, so if you want to try it again on another playthrough, you can do so without overwriting anything.  Another strength is the frantic feeling you get in close combat situations, in which you must quickly find the spot on an attacking zombie to hit before it makes you its lunch.  It’s also worth noting that once you do beat the episode, you’ll want to go back through and just spend time dying at various points.  I played through the episode the first time without dying (though I can’t say the same for my companions), and realized there were some pretty insane (and humorous) death scenes I was missing.  The episode is short enough (~2 hours) that you can play through it a few times to see everything the game has to offer, as it will be impossible to do so in a single run.

My gripes are minor: the animations, particularly with a character’s eyes, can be a little off.  Characters can do scowls, glares and other facial expressions that involve eye squints very well, but when a character is surprised, shocked or using an expression that involves their eyes going wide, it looks awful, and pulls you out of the experience a bit.  Controls on the keyboard for movement feel very awkward; if you can use a gamepad, do so.  There are points in the conversations where there is an out of place silence, or characters will say things that don’t seem in line with how the conversation was going, almost as if the game was choosing the wrong dialog response to the previous statement.  The game is also very linear, with fairly obvious solutions to the various puzzles.  The only real challenge is trying to balance everyone’s emotions towards you, until you realize that you can’t please everyone.  Then it just turns into focusing your efforts on the characters you care about, and letting the others fend for themselves.

Tym’s Take: The Walking Dead is an excellent start to this 5 episode game series.  You quickly become invested both in your character and the characters you meet, and for a game that’s as short as this is, that’s an impressive feat.  You will have genuine moments of terror as you watch companions die while you’re trying to save them, and the mature tone of the game is appreciated.  I truly got the feeling that the way characters behaved in this game is pretty much how real people would behave, and what shocked me most was realizing that how I was interacting with the game is probably a fair representation of how I’d handle myself in that situation in life.  The Walking Dead is as much litmus test of your real-life handling of pressure situations as it is a horror game, and is probably why this game does such a good job of pulling you in, and keeping you engaged.  I strongly recommend this game to anyone.

+ Excellent dialog and voice acting
+ Decisions have real consequences
+ Decisions must be made quickly
- Animations and certain dialog sequences are a little off
- Game is pretty much on rails, relying on character interactions to provide the variety of outcomes

Final Score: 9/10

I’ve been playing with Seagate’s GoFlex Satellite, and it’s time I tell you what I think. Is it a dud or a must have for any tablet or smartphone user?

For those of you that don’t know what’s so special about the GoFlex Satellite, it’s a Wi-Fi portable hard drive. One that has 500GBs worth a space. With any iOS or Android device, you are able to pretty much stream any of your media library over the Wi-Fi from the GoFlex Satellite to whatever you’re using. You can also access files that are on the GoFlex Satellite and copy them from the Satellite to whatever you are using.

The Seagate GoFlex Satellite is a pretty simple device. It’s just a tad bigger then your standard USB powered HDD; this is to store a battery that’s reported good for up to 7 hours. It, of course, also has Wi-Fi hardware inside of it that allows you to connect to it through Seagate’s GoFlex Media app. To keep internet access to your device, you can connect your GoFlex Satellite to another network and then piggyback its connection to your device. This is a nice and very important feature to have because without it, if you were connected to the GoFlex Satellite, you wouldn’t have any internet on your device. Also packed in with the GoFlex Satellite were the cables necessary to connect it to your computer via USB 2 or USB 3. A USB power cord (so you can charge it without having to connect it to your Mac or PC), and an car charger adapter (for those long drives) are also included.

So how well does is work? Seagate’s GoFlex Satellite almost hit a homerun with this HDD. The only flaws I could find happen to be with the GoFlex Media app and not the HDD itself. Yes you can stream videos, but ONLY iOS friendly videos. This means no .avi’s or .mkv’s, two well known and widely used formats in the video media world. You can, of course, convert your media to .mp4′s or .m4v’s, but who really wants to do that? Certainly I don’t, nor would I want to when I can play just about any type of file already on my iPad with apps. Another really big flaw for me was how I can’t move files from my iPad to the GoFlex Satellite. Their file transfer system only works one way. I think it would be great to be able to move some of my documents from Pages, or photos that are on my device to the GoFlex Satellite. The fact you can not do it only baffles me; it seems like such a common sense type of thing. The only reason that I could see as a legit reason not to include this option is if Apple won’t allow it, but as other apps have allowed me to do similar things, I’m not sure if this is the reason. These two issues are the only two problems I have with the GoFlex Satellite, both of which seem that they could be fixed through an update of their app.

Overall I was very surprised by how well the Seagate GoFlex Satellite worked and performed. I plugged it to my Mac, threw some videos on it, and then it was ready to go. I’ve tried it around the house, and on a trip down to Boulder. Actually to be honest, my daughter tried it on the trip down to Boulder and it worked great. The Seagate app connected right to the HDD and it showed me all the videos that I threw on it. Each one played pretty much instantly and without any issue. I could easily see myself using this on any type of commutes, vacations, or even just around the office. The fact that I can connect up to 3 devices up to the GoFlex Satellite just makes it even more appealing. All of a sudden, I’m watching a movie, my daughter is watching one of her Disney shows and my wife can still watch whatever she wants to. That would be so awesome for any of our vacations when we have our downtime.

Steve’s Final Say: If you have kids, and they have any iOS or Android device, this is really a must have. Just think of all the quiet time you’ll get on any trip as they have access to their movies or tv shows. If you go on trips yourself, or commutes where you watch tv shows or movies, this again, is really a must have. Free up your iOS or Android device and keep your media on this, and then just connect it to whenever you want to watch your media. The GoFlex Satellite really does work great and it’s so simple to use.

Edit: There has been a firmware update that now allows up to 8 people to connect wirelessly to to GoFlex Satellite.

8 games have entered.  2 remain.  After 2 round of matchups, we have our final pairing for you to vote on for the game you’re looking forward to most this fall.  For those just joining, here is how things played out thus far, going into the Semi-Finals:

After a week of voting, your choice for the final matchup broke down as follows:

#1 Halo 4 took care of the upstart #5 Grand Theft Auto 5 with 55.4% of the vote (92 votes).

#2 Assassin’s Creed 3 destroyed #3 Borderlands 2, taking in an impressive 75% of the vote (92 votes).

So that leaves us with the final match-up for the Fall 2012 Game Release Showdown – #1 Halo 4 vs. #2 Assassin’s Creed 3:

What game are you looking forward to more? Do you want to see what life after Bungie is like for the Halo franchise?  Or are you ready to see what role you will play in the revolutionary war in Assassin’s Creed 3?  Do battle in the future, or engage in the past (from the future)?  Stick a grunt with a plasma grenade, or stick a tomahawk into a grunting templar?  Vote for your preference now!

(You may need to refresh the page to see the poll)

While I’m very excited to be able to continue to play in the Halo universe, I will have to say that I’m personally looking forward to Assassin’s Creed 3 more.  I just love the gameplay of the AC games, and think that Ubisoft really nailed it with the era they decided to place this game in.  That’s not to say I won’t be picking both of these games up – I will, but AC3 is my preference this time around.

On a more personal note, this will be the last ASQ I write for Platform Nation.  Fear not: I will be putting together one final post next week giving the results of this showdown, as well as providing stats for all of the other currently open ASQs from the last couple of months, to tie a nice ribbon around this feature.  Thanks to everyone who has participated in the ASQs over the years, and helped to make this fun for me (and hopefully for you!).  I’ll save getting all mushy for next week’s final post, but I wanted to give everyone the heads up now!

Anyway, enough with all that.  Vote for your champion above, and drop a comment below letting us know what you picked and why!

View previous ASQ: Fall 2012 Game Release Showdown – Semi-Finals - View next ASQ: Final Results And Farewell

Round 1 is in the books! Over 250 votes were tallied, and the winners are moving on to the next round.  Here’s how the matchups went:

#1 Halo 4 beat #8 Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, with 60.6% of the vote.

# 2 Assassin’s Creed 3 edged out #7 BioShock: Infinite, getting 52.1% of the vote.

#3 Borderlands 2 crushed # 6 Far Cry 3, snagging 67.2% of all votes.

and #5 Grand Theft Auto 5 upset #4 Resident Evil 6, with 65.2% of the vote.

Can’t say I’m surprised by the results of the winners for Round 1.  BioShock: Infinite and Assassin’s Creed 3 was a coin-flip for me, so it’s no surprise that matchup was so close, and while I’m sure CoD: BO2 will sell very well, it seems people are clamoring for the next Halo game.

The updated bracket shapes up as follows:

Two heavyweights will clash between the Halo and GTA franchises. These are very different games, so I will have a hard time choosing between which I want to see advance more.  On the other side, two highly anticipated sequels look to steal gamers’ hearts, time, and money this fall.  Which will you choose?  Make your selections below, make sure to click the Cast Your Vote button, and drop a comment letting everyone know why you think the games you chose should move on to the final round!

(You may need to refresh the page to see the polls)

My picks? It wasn’t easy, but I chose to go with Grand Theft Auto 5 and Assassin’s Creed 3.  GTA is largely because as much as I love Halo, I love sandbox games more.  I have no doubt that I’ll own both of these games, but given a choice, I choose GTA5.  Borderlands 2 and AC3 was tougher for me, as I love both of these franchises.  In the end, I think I’m more interested in the time period that AC3 is set in, and the new dynamics that are being introduced.  Borderlands 2 is playing it safe by not changing too much, and that’s not a bad thing at all. Again, I’ll own both of these, but I think AC3 will bring more to the table for me off the bat.

View previous ASQ: Fall 2012 Game Release Showdown – Round 1 - View next ASQ: Fall 2012 Game Release Showdown – Finals

A Simple Question (ASQ) is a weekly segment for Platform Nation.  Give a response and let the world know what you think; there is no right or wrong answer here. If you have a suggestion for a question, hit me up on twitter @vttym.

Game Review: Trials Evolution
Release: April 18th, 2012
Genre: Platform, Racing
Developer: RedLynx
Available Platforms: XBLA
Players: 1-4
MSRP: $15
ESRB Rating: E10+
Website: http://www.redlynx.com/trials-evolution

For a long time, I have been a Trials fan. Back when the game wasn’t on consoles and was a browser game, it had some great addictive potential but lacked the charm and variety that would truly make it a huge hit. That changed when Trials HD launched on Xbox Live Arcade in 2009 and was met with outstanding reviews. It was one of the best XBLA games to release on the console and was downloaded millions of times and loved by gamers worldwide, the wide variety of tracks and fun challenging gameplay kept you coming back just to get over the next obstacle or beat your friends new score.

When I sat down to play Trials Evolution, from what information I had previously seen about the game, I was expecting more tracks to be based outside, more obstacles for me to throw myself over and the addition of a multiplayer component. What I found was something better, Trials Evolution is one of the most comprehensive, addictive and fun games to hit XBLA since the service first launched. If you are looking for a game to keep your attention, to keep you hooked to your controller and to keep you coming back again and again, load up your console and hit the download button right now.

Trials Evolution is the follow-up to Trials HD. Developers RedLynx have done an outstanding job of maintaining the best qualities of Trials HD while adding extra games modes, in-level physics and track environments. Every so often you’ll finish a track and think “Wow, did that really just happen?”.

If you haven’t seen either of the Trials games that have made their way to Xbox Live Arcade, you are in control of a biker and have to make your way to the end of a course, each of the courses you make your way through have a different theme and aesthetic. As you progress further through the game you will unlock more challenging levels, ultimately leading you up to some extremely delicate and nail-biting sections as you face the extreme tracks that have been menacingly conjured up by the team at RedLynx. Before you even plan to make progress through the game you’ll need to wrap your head around the bike physics of the game. Jumping off the ramp and landing at the right angle are make or break in this game. Thankfully the checkpoint system is very forgiving and most tracks have a checkpoint between each obstacle.

While resetting to the last checkpoint you passed and attempting to make the jump again can seem like the best solution, another great element in Trials Evolution is the competitive nature. After every track you complete you will be presented with the scores that your friends have got. I pride myself of coming the top of all track leaderboards and sometimes spend hours on the same track just to shave a couple of seconds off my final time. This competitive nature increases tenfold with the addition of Online Multiplayer in Trials Evolution, four players can now pit themselves against each other on specially designed four player courses, or you can have a ghost races against each other on some of the Single Player tracks to see who really is the best racer. The rank system implemented into the game doesn’t really matter too much as you can unlock cash from doing absolutely anything in the game, whether it be finishing a race or completing a tournament. Once I had completed all the offline tracks, I found myself with over $100,000 and at that point I could already afford the most expensive items available to customize your racer and your bike.

Another addition that players of Trials HD have been waiting for is the online track sharing and creating feature. While the original game featured a track creator, it was very limited and once you had created a track you would only be able to share it with people on your friends list and not the entire Trials community. Some of the maps I have encountered while looking for tracks to download from the community are incredibly well designed, including a 2D shooter and even a remake of Angry Birds, aptly named Angry Bikes.

If I could say one thing about the game it would be sit back and enjoy the ride. If you have Trials HD and are wondering if this game really improves enough on the original formula to warrant a download, trust me, download this game now. If you are new to the Trials games, Trials Evolution is a great place to start.

• Addictive gameplay
• Wide variety of levels
• Great difficulty progression in Single Player catering for new players and old
• Track Editor that gives you endless possibilities

Final Score: 10 out of 10

With the announcement on Conan O’Brien Monday night that Halo 4 will be launching on November 6th, it has solidified what was already going to be a pretty busy fall season for 2012.  Borderlands 2, GTA V, BioShock: Infinite, Far Cry 3, Resident Evil 6, Assassin’s Creed III and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 are all calling the 3 month span from September to November home, and that’s not even all of it.  That’s a LOT of gaming vying for your money and time, and we all know there’s only so much of both to go around.  So, to get a feel for what game people are anticipating the most, we’re going to present you with the Fall Game Release bracket.  Seeding is based on ranking for “Anticipated Games” on VGReleases.com as of 4/17/2012, with Halo 4 getting an automatic 1 seeding (the release news is so recent, it’s not on the charts at all yet):

* – Note: Bioshock: Infinite and CoD: Black Ops 2 seeding is based on Xbox 360 rank, due to not being listed in the Top 40 overall Anticipated Games rank.

I may not agree with all of the seedings, but that’s the beauty of the brackets.  Now to the part where you come in: you’ll be voting for your preferred Fall Gaming release – the game YOU want the most.  Each round you will vote on each matchup, until one game remains. You should choose the game in each matchup that you’d be most willing to put your money down to buy.  If you’d buy both, then choose which you’d want to play first.  Without further ado, to the polls:

(You may need to refresh the page to see the polls)

My personal votes for this round? Halo 4, AC3, Borderlands 2 and GTA5.  But to heck with what I think: what do YOU think? Vote above, and comment below.  Next week’s ASQ will continue the bracket based on your votes, so be sure to check back to see how your favorite games are doing, and share the brackets with your friends to sway the vote to your favor!

View previous ASQ: Portable Gaming - View next ASQ: Fall 2012 Game Release Showdown – Semi-Finals

A Simple Question (ASQ) is a weekly segment for Platform Nation.  Give a response and let the world know what you think; there is no right or wrong answer here. If you have a suggestion for a question, hit me up on twitter @vttym.

Double Dragon Neon

Admittedly, I got about 5 minutes of play with this game from developer WayForward.  I did watch others play for a bit though, and am happy to report that, as a fan of the original, it was nice to see the homage this game was paying to it.  Everything from the ridiculous opening “story” (seriously, why couldn’t our fearless heroes just, you know, run to save the girl? The bad guys had just left the screen a second before the garage opened), to the intro music for the level being a nice remix of the original’s, to the familiar looking characters and enemies; it all screams nostalgia.  Fortunately, there is some modernization going on, particularly with the graphics.  I personally liked the style that was displayed; if felt very 80s, in a modern day way.  Colors are vibrant, muscles are bulging, and boobs are bouncing.  There is some nice attention to detail on the characters, and also a strong variety of moves available to use.  Best part? (or worse, depending on how you liked to play) No team killing!  I don’t know if it was an option that was turned off, but I certainly threw my share of bad guys into my friend, and they tumbled safely through him.  I am sure there are many surprises waiting, but my initial playthrough and impression was positive, and I’m looking forward to this hitting the XBLA and PSN virtual storefronts this summer.

A Valley Without Wind

Arcen Games, the folks behind AI War, had a new game available to play at PAX: A Valley Without Wind.  Citing influences such as Metroid and Zelda, the team was very excited about what they had created.  Sitting down to play it myself, I could see why.  Controlling the character movement with the keyboard, and using the mouse to move a target around the screen that will be the focus for your spell’s direction of fire, you will embark on a 2D side-scrolling adventure through various continents, doing battle, collecting resources, building up cities, and exploring the area.  I will say this; there is a TON to do in this game, and the fine folks at Arcen Games told me that the game has endless gameplay, thanks to procedural generation of the lands and environments.  The basic premise is to collect items by defeating enemies, knocking down trees, or exploring buildings.  You can select from a variety of characters that have different focuses (some have more HP, some more Magic, others are a hybrid), and these characters can be built up, learn new spells, and learn new skills.  One thing I was told, however, is that your characters will die, a lot.  Once a character is dead, it’s gone, but any items you accumulate are transferred over to the next character.  Since skill boosts are actually items that are picked up, it may be wise to save those skill boosts as items, if you think your character won’t make it.

There was a decent variety to the enemies in the 15 minute demo I had access to, and each one of them came with a variety of resistances and weaknesses.  If you played AI Wars, then you know that Arcen Games is not shy about the amount of information that they put into their games’ tooltips, and A Valley Without Wind is no exception.  You will be pausing the game quite a bit to hover over new enemies, read their stats, and decide the best course of action.  Items, spells, resources, trees; everything has a tooltip, so be ready to stutter through the game at first while you get your bearings.  This does mean there’s some depth and strategy, but the tradeoff is that it must be communicated somehow, and that means heavy reading. The jumping mechanic also feels a little off, with valid jumps not always registering on the platforms I created, but I’ll reserve judgement, and say it was perhaps user error.

A Valley Without Wind will be releasing in April on Steam for PC and Mac, and will feature solo play, as well as online 2-8+ player co-op.  I think I’d need a little more time with the game to decide if it is worth investing in, but there is a ton to this game, and those looking for a challenging scroller with RPG elements and endless gameplay have found their game.  I got the impression there was more to the multiplayer facet, and particularly with the civilizations and cities that you’ll be building, but with such a short time with the game, it was hard to get into those aspects.  I’ll be curious to get more time with this, and see how those play a factor.

The Secret World

If there’s two things this world might not need more of, it’s zombie games and MMOs.  FunCom is hoping they have a magic bullet with The Secret World, however, by introducing a zombie MMO to the world.  Set in the modern day, you can choose to be a part of one of three secret societies: the Illuminati, the Dragon, or the Templars. The societies will form the basis of your allegiance, and will be useful both for building up your society’s strength, as well as taking part in PVP combat against other societies.  It’s important to note that there are no classes in The Secret World; your character is defined by whatever skills and equipment you choose to give them, so there is a very flexible playstyle that will likely minimize the need to re-roll (or eliminate it altogether).

I played for a short while, and found the game to be serviceable. The atmosphere was excellent, starting off in a spooky wooded area, and being directed to get to the nearest town. Soon you’re dashing down a road while zombies tear at lifeless corpses, wander the street, or lurk in the forests.  You can choose to engage many of them, or just run past, but eventually you will do battle with the zombie horde.  I saw all types of zombies; runners, walkers, crawlers, climbers, you name a zombie, it’s here.  Lifeless corpses that look innocent enough suddenly rise up behind you, so you’re always on your toes.  You have a variety of weapons at your disposal, as well as some initial skills that augment those weapons.  I had a shotgun and assault rifle, and found it did the trick fairly well.  I am sure I was missing something, but could not for the life of me figure out how to free-fire my weapons; I had to use skills at all times in order to attack, so while some skills were refreshing I was left without a method of attack (again, I was probably missing the command, but it certainly wasn’t immediately intuitive).  I did enjoy skills like Tactical Retreat, which places a bomb at my feet while I leaped back to safety.  The leap would hit all enemies with a slow effect, ensuring they stayed in range for the explosion while I was safely away.

Dialog was hit and miss, which is to say, on par with your average MMO.  There is a ton of dialog options and mission with most of the characters, and you’ll also trigger missions as you walk around interacting with the environment.  There was plenty to do and play with, so the mission variety seemed ample.  I was playing this game early, so I didn’t see any other characters in the world at the time, but this is an MMO, so there will be the opportunity to group up and kill the zombie horde.

I’m intrigued enough to want more, so I’ll be looking forward to the Beta coming soon.  You can get in on it too: click here for a signup on getting into the beta and seeing the zombie MMO for yourself.  The Secret World will be available June 19th, so you have time to check it out for yourself before deciding if this is one you want to sink your teeth into.

Spec Ops: The Line

Borderlands 2 wasn’t the only 2K game showing off its stuff at PAX.  Right next to that booth, and taking up an equal amount of space, was an impressive demo of Spec Ops: The Line.  I was able to get some considerable hands-on time with the game, and can say that if the entire game is as memorable as the first 30 minutes, you’ll have a hard time not picking this up when it hits the shelves.  You start the game off at the turret of a helicopter flying through an urban area that is being ravaged.  You’re working on taking down other choppers, and when you do, they tend to crash in spectacular fashion: into buildings, cranes, or each other.  There’s one point where you’re shooting through a high-rise building to hit the chopper on the other side.  Very impressive way to get things going.  Eventually you find yourself on the ground, in the deserts of Dubai, looking for a lost squad.  I won’t delve too much more into the story, but you’ll encounter resistance, and do battle both outside and in while trying to find your targets.

The game plays as a third person shooter, with a focus on cover. The game won’t constantly prompt you to take cover, but you’re going to find yourself doing so often, because not only do you take damage fairly quickly, but your gun is pretty inaccurate when trying to free-fire, or even aim down the sights while standing.  I found I had the best accuracy, and lowest recoil when I was tucked under cover, and coming out in a way that allowed me to balance my gun.  So there’s some strategy there, which is a nice change of pace from the run and gun style that I’m used to.  There’s some excellent situational sections that require some quick thinking, as well as varied gameplay in the short demo (some areas were stealth, with silenced weapons, others involved sniping, some were close quarters combat).  There’s also a nice touch of slow mo death scenes from time to time; I noticed them most frequently on head-shots, but I was typically moving to the next target as I noticed it slowing down, so I lost the effect when I would break out of “down the barrel” view.  Other gimmicks like rappelling and zip lines are here, but only as transitions between areas, rather than having any tactical use.

Graphics were hit and miss. There were times when I was impressed with some level of detail, and then other times when it was noticeably awful.  Truth be told, I was having fun playing, so they only stood out when I had time to notice it, which was typically during cut scenes.  Otherwise, the game, while standard fare for shooters, was still a fun run, and one of the better games I played at PAX.  Details were sparse on the multiplayer offerings, and with games like this, those details tend to be what makes or breaks games, so once they release this information (we were told two weeks), we’ll let you know!  Based on my 30 minutes with the game, I’d certainly be willing to see the single player through, so this may be worth picking up for that alone (though if multiplayer disappoints, perhaps it will be a rental).  Spec Ops: The Line will be released on June 26th.

This was just a small sampling of what was on the floor at PAX, but it’s what I got the most time with.  Keep it locked to Platform Nation for more PAX East 2012 coverage.  Did you get a chance to play these games, want to share your thoughts, or have questions? Drop a comment below and let us know!